Family stuff

[pinkytoe]

I never thought she would be interested...but sent DD a scanned photo of her great-grandfather roping cattle on his ranch circa 1917. She wanted to know all about their lives back then so maybe interest kindles after the next generation get a little older.

[catherine]

I never thought she would be interested...but sent DD a scanned photo of her great-grandfather roping cattle on his ranch circa 1917. She wanted to know all about their lives back then so maybe interest kindles after the next generation get a little older.

Yes.. you never know when it will ignite, which is why my philosophy is to wait on things like pictures and documents. I have one son who always responds when I send stuff to the family about our ancestors--but he's the one with a Masters in American history. The other kids are very take-it-or-leave it. But once you destroy these artifacts, they're gone forever. It does take time for the importance of our people and our places to rise up.

[razz]

A question. Do your local museums have genealogy sections where artifacts can be donated and preserved. I donated a dirndl dress, Bavarian traditional dress, to a local museum who asked me about the history of the owner and how/why it came to the museum. This is then available for future generations to research.
This item in particular joined a large collection of a similar nature which show the flow and heritage of immigrants to the area.

[iris lilies]

Yes.. you never know when it will ignite, which is why my philosophy is to wait on things like pictures and documents. I have one son who always responds when I send stuff to the family about our ancestors--but he's the one with a Masters in American history. The other kids are very take-it-or-leave it. But once you destroy these artifacts, they're gone forever. It does take time for the importance of our people and our places to rise up.

once the oldest generation dies off in our lives suddenly we get a sense of mortality and also get a sense of all the knowledge that left with them.

I wasn’t interested in family history stuff until I was in my 40s. Having been surrounded by genealogists who babble their boring family histories at me in libraries for decades, I just wanted to stay away from it all. But I AM drawn to reading a simple executive summary to both sides of my family, that would be good enough. If only someone would write that!


I am forever grateful to those who worked one side of my family and put up a key genealogical document from my great great grandfather. In it he outlines his own parentage tracing back to the small village in Germany where they came from. It’s out there on the web should I ever wanna find it again. Also someone put up a photograph of my great great grandfather in his Civil War outfit. I appreciate that as well.

I was also in my 40s before I liked my great aunts engagement ring from 1918. It is big and gaudy. She had some money. It really wasn’t my style until I hit my 40s, and now I like it and wear it often. It’s also practical to wear in ways that my modern jewelry is not.

[iris lilies]

Also, the dna stuff can be weird. One of my little cousins, a cousin who is in my own cousin “In” group, was actually a step cousin though there were rumors otherwise. Well, this year she had her DNA tested and to no surprise to anyone really, she is our blood cousin.She is not sharing that news outside of a small group.

[catherine]

once the oldest generation dies off in our lives suddenly we get a sense of mortality and also get a sense of all the knowledge that left with them.

I wasn’t interested in family history stuff until I was in my 40s. Having been surrounded by genealogists who babble their boring family histories at me in libraries for decades, I just wanted to stay away from it all. But I AM drawn to reading a simple executive summary to both sides of my family, that would be good enough. If only someone would write that!


I am forever grateful to those who worked one side of my family and put up a key genealogical document from my great great grandfather. In it he outlines his own parentage tracing back to the small village in Germany where they came from. It’s out there on the web should I ever wanna find it again. Also someone put up a photograph of my great great grandfather in his Civil War outfit. I appreciate that as well.

I was also in my 40s before I liked my great aunts engagement ring from 1918. It is big and gaudy. She had some money. It really wasn’t my style until I hit my 40s, and now I like it and wear it often. It’s also practical to wear in ways that my modern jewelry is not.

Two points:

I am on ancestry.com and I really have gotten a lot from it. But too often the data is so bland. A gravestone here, a census there. I've rarely uncovered a story, or any insight into who my ancestors really were.

Also, as some of you know, my great-aunt was hugely influential in my life. She gave me a simple, wonderful, peaceful life every summer. I have actually LOST SLEEP because of the burden of being her sole memory-keeper. She had one child who died at 3 years old. No one else survives. Once I'm dead, no one will be here to testify to her grace, beauty, and love. That makes me not just sad, but desperate. The only thing I can do is to preserve the pictures and connect them with the stories.

So, I think your "executive summary" idea is a great one, Tybee!! Write what you can.

[Tybee]

Two points:

I am on ancestry.com and I really have gotten a lot from it. But too often the data is so bland. A gravestone here, a census there. I've rarely uncovered a story, or any insight into who my ancestors really were.

Also, as some of you know, my great-aunt was hugely influential in my life. She gave me a simple, wonderful, peaceful life every summer. I have actually LOST SLEEP because of the burden of being her sole memory-keeper. She had one child who died at 3 years old. No one else survives. Once I'm dead, no one will be here to testify to her grace, beauty, and love. That makes me not just sad, but desperate. The only thing I can do is to preserve the pictures and connect them with the stories.

So, I think your "executive summary" idea is a great one, Tybee!! Write what you can.

I can't take credit for that idea--that is IL--but it sure is a good one!

I hear you about your beloved great-aunt, Catherine. This is part of the rationale behind the photo albums, that someday I can sit with my grandchildren and tell them stories, the way my grandmother did with me. I still remember the things she told me about family genealogy, and lo and behold, all these years later, Ancestry DNA is proving all the things she told me back in 1965. So yeah, you can't really know how your grandchildren will look at things and what will be important to them.

And of course when I am gone, they can pitch the albums if they want, it's not my responsibility anymore.

I like the museum idea, and there is a museum for the Army AirForce that we might donate some things to, letters from WWII.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Also, as some of you know, my great-aunt was hugely influential in my life. She gave me a simple, wonderful, peaceful life every summer. I have actually LOST SLEEP because of the burden of being her sole memory-keeper. She had one child who died at 3 years old. No one else survives. Once I'm dead, no one will be here to testify to her grace, beauty, and love. That makes me not just sad, but desperate. The only thing I can do is to preserve the pictures and connect them with the stories.

she may have very well accepted this while she lived anyway though, obviously I don't know her. If I'm forgotten after I'm dead pfft, so is everyone pretty much, doesn't mean I want to die prematurely or anything but after I'm dead, shrug, everyone is pretty much forgotten. At some level I don't want to leave much of a legacy, if I was going to anyway, who knows how that legacy will be used long after one is gone anyway afterall. Yea if I was an artist or something I'd destroy the paintings before death or something

[iris lilies]

Well about photos in boxes: my vision of that is they are in photo boxes and they are organized, probably chronologically within family or family unit or family line. I mean there is some kind of organizational principal going on there, it’s not just random crap thrown around boxes like we all inherent from our parents. The photo boxes I have in mind hold photos that sit on edge and you can flip through them like files in a file cabinet, with index markers for years.


But I just want to emphasize because I’m single minded about it,: there really is little value in saving photographs for the next generations if you do not write down who is in the photograph And the approximate time it was taken,. If you can add other context such as “This was Eli’s 42nd birthday celebration” or “uncle Jim traveled from Kansas and it’s the only time we saw him over 20 years” or “aunt Susie died the next day— What a blessing we were all together! “ that is fabulous!


See? I can make up this stuff all day!


I’m still mad at my mother for writing on the back of a photograph of one of the ancient relatives “she was very old in this picture but this is the only picture we have of her. “


Hey mom, who is “she? “. Maybe I can figure out maybe I can’t but I’d really rather not guess. I’m guessing from the nose on this woman that she’s from my grandfather’s side of the family, they had nice schnauzes.

[sweetana3]

IL, we have a classic photo of two barefooted guys in overalls, no shirts, standing in front of an ancient truck holding a baby. No one knows who they are or wants to claim them. Boy I could make up some stories. A whole box of useless unidentified photos that we are getting rid of.

There are no grandkids, nieces or nephews on either side of our family. We are the end and the stuff will end with us unless we put it on something like Ancestry for others use.